Thursday, April 2, 2015

Week 12, Post 7

Doctors
throughout American need to stop prescribing pain medication as if it were
candy with no consequences. I have lost too many people to prescription drug
overdose and it is still a rising problem in America. I lost my first friend at
the age of 15 to methadone: a drug that is supposed to be used to aid heroin
addicts through their withdrawals, as they get sober. This was my freshman year
of high school and we were able to get our hands on dozens of different
prescription medications as easily as buying candy at the local store. My close
friend at the time was doing methadone with his best friend. One day, he gave
him methadone to take at home. His friend took it, fell asleep, aspirated, and
died. The parents blamed his death on my best friend and he never forgave
himself. This was the start of his down spiral into harder drugs. He died this
February, almost exactly ten years later, to a heroin overdoes.

When
I was 17 I had a procedure done to help the pain caused my interstitial
cystitis, a bladder disorder that makes you feel like you have a constant
bladder infection. I was put under so they could put a balloon in my bladder
and inflate it in hopes of expanding my bladder to relieve some of the pain I
experienced from pain day to day. After the surgery I was prescribed 40 Vicoden
tablets. The instructions were to take 1 tablet every 8 hours as needed for pain.
This was enough for a 14-day supply. The pain I was in after the procedure
called for Motrin 800, not a narcotic medication.I was 17, and I was prescribed the
medication, so of course I took it, it made me feel great. Luckily, I was not
one of the many who get addicted to prescription medication because of
situations exactly like this.

In
2013 I lost a very close friend to another prescription medication overdose. McKenzie
was not a drug addict. She smoked some pot and took a prescription pills recreational
once in awhile. She stopped partying for a few months in order to apply for
jobs. In October she decided to take some Morphine. She was with her friends
and they all took it too. She was the only person not to wake up the morning of
October 26. She was only 20 years old. She had so much life left in her.

I
tell anyone that I meet that uses prescription drugs recreationally, “Taking
these drugs, it’s the same as Russian roulette, there is no rhyme or reason as
to who will die and when.”

Why
is it so easy to get prescription drugs off of the street? I work in a pharmacy
and every day I see at least 20 very strong narcotic drug prescriptions written
for patients. They are written for migraines, arthritis, cramps, any ache or
pain under the son.Most of these
prescriptions are written by one of two doctors. These doctors are not pain
management doctors they are general physicians. Every day I wonder why they are
not being investigated by the DEA. How can you prescribe narcotics of hundreds
of patients that do not need them? Are their patients paying them? Are they
getting some of the drugs brought back to them for personal use? Are they just
naïve the addictions they are creating? The deaths they could potentially
indirectly cause?

What
can we do to stop the distribution of narcotic medication to patients that do
not need them? If there are less prescriptions written there will be less of
them on the streets and then it will be harder for the general public to buy
and consume. If it’s harder for the general public to buy there will be a
decrease of addiction and death.We need
to stop this down spiral. What can we do? We need to raise awareness. There has
been a huge increase in heroin use and overdoes in the past decade. Why?
Because once painkillers (opioids) become too costly the user can turn to a
much cheaper alternative… heroin. American citizens need to come together, sign
petitions, talk to doctors, create communities where these issue can be
discussed. You don’t think this affects you, until it does.